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Exercise at Home – Some Tips on Getting Started

19th September 2018

Here are some tips to help you maintain your commitment to exercising a home.

Buy inexpensive equipment

You can start working out just with bodyweight but if you need more variety, here is a list of what you should get. There is absolutely no need to try to copy the big gyms by buying treadmills, spin machines and rowers. With this small list of equipment, you can get in a wide variety of movements that target all the major muscle groups in the body. To take away the barriers from you purchasing this equipment, buy these items on Amazon and have them delivered to your home:

Exercise mat

Measuring tape

Towel

Water bottle

Skipping rope

Dumbbells of varying weight

Book an appointment with yourself

The next thing you need to do is mark out a time in your diary for exercise. When can you fit it into your busy schedule? If you don’t do this, trust me, it won’t get done.

Most of what you put in your diary is likely to get done.

There is also something about writing it down, that makes you more likely to accomplish your goal.

Why write it down? When you see it in front of you, you are more likely to follow through.

So diarise exercising.

just like booking an appointment to meet someone, you need to book an appointment with yourself.

It is the one of the most valuable times of the day where you need to take time out and put your body first. So, talk to those around you and tell them what your goals are.

Get them to support you in your health goals so when they see you exercising they don’t disturb you.

Remember, this is a time for you to invest in your long-term health, so just as you don’t miss appointments with your doctor or dentist, do the same with exercise. It is one of nature’s best medicines. Make it high priority.

I find this is a key step to changing your life from where it is now to where you want to be. Plan ahead of the week and state the days you will be exercising. Put it in the diary and let people know what you will be doing with your time.

If you have a busy day, set the time aside and make sure you put your health first place. No distractions.

Write your fitness check list

The night before, write down the list of things you need to accomplish the following day, and include getting exercise in first thing in the morning. This will prime your mind for the exercise and start you on the path to improving your health.

Also plan in how you plan on rewarding yourself for exercising. Will you have a long soak in the bath or make some delicious Pink Salmon for dinner? Get a good night’s rest and set your alarm for an early start.

Start Early

A good time to get exercise in is before all the responsibilities and family related commitments kick in.

Do it first thing in the morning. You need enough time to complete your workout before anyone else is awake. If you can’t exercise in the morning, doing it any later in the day will be much harder. This doesn’t mean exercising later in the day is not doable.

It is just not optimal for many reasons. For a start research shows that exercise in the morning has a higher fat burning potential.

As your body has been fasting all night during sleep, your glycogen levels in your body is depleted which means that your body has run out of the energy sources that come from food, and rather it is relying on body fat to complete the exercise routine.

This is great if your goal is to burn fat in the shortest possible time.

By the afternoon/evening, your glycogen stores in your body have been replenished, and your body resorts to using these food energy sources as these are they are the easiest to use.

Your body tends to go for what is easiest, so you need to prevent this from happening by starting first thing in the morning.

Prime yourself for exercise

It is important to get yourself in a good positive mental state before exercising. You want to start programming your mind so that you link exercising to positive feelings rather than negative feelings.

Start today by focusing on the benefits of exercise. But you need to do more than this. You need to sub-consciously programme your mind to positive feelings. You start by thinking about all those positive things that have happened in your life:

The birth of your child

The day you met the love of your life.

That day you bought your first car

The day you found you got your first full-time job

When you bought your first car.

The day you found you Ace’d that exam

Stack these experiences in your mind and think through those experiences. How did you feel? When you have pictured these feelings, say a big “Yes” while clenching your fist at the same time. Move your body while you do this, just like you came first place in a race. Arms raised and jumping while you say “yes”. Let the smile cross your face. Get yourself primed for exercise. Do this every morning or whenever you have set the time aside for exercise.

Download an exercise timer to your smart phone

There are a lot of great fitness apps out there. Each are good in their own right.

You may choose to buy one, but in my experience the free apps are just fine.

You may want to purchase an app to save time, as with some of the free apps you need to enter your specific settings each time.

As a guideline, go for the most popular apps with the most reviews, and check the reviews to see what is being said about the app before installing.

Get a fast-beat music playlist

I find that music has a huge impact on how well I exercise and how much I put the effort in.

it is a good idea to choose an upbeat positive playlist as this will keep you motivated through the hardest part of your workout, so no Celine Dionne, Mariah Carey or Susan Boyle, that is unless you want to slow down to their pace.

No songs about heartbreak or anything negative. You want positive, upbeat music that will get you motivated for exercise.

My personal favourite app is Amazon Music because it is free, high quality music and frequently updated playlists.There are also no ads.

Another great app is Audiomack. It plays with no interruptions and has a great selection of playlists for whatever taste you have in music. It is user-friendly and has a lot of variety so you won’t get bored.

Eliminate distractions

You have set yourself time for exercise, so now eliminate all possibilities for distractions.

Find Space, or Make Some

Indoors, outdoors. A park, your garden or your living room. Just set yourself enough space to exercise indoors. If there is no space and you want to exercise indoors, make some. There is always outdoor space and if the weather is bad, go for a jog.

Measure up

To get from where you are to where you want to be, it is important to measure where you are now. This is key if you want to get anywhere with your body. There is nothing like having a fixed goal to see where you want to be. This will involve taking measurements of your:

Waist

Chest

Thighs (just one will do)

Arms (just one will do)

Butt

If you can’t do this yourself, ask someone to help you. To measure your waist, measure around your waist keeping the tape around your navel.